About Allison Tait
BestSelling children’s Author
My Story
Allison Tait (A.L. Tait) is the internationally published bestselling author of 11 middle-grade novels, including fantasy adventure series The Mapmaker Chronicles the Ateban Cipher novels, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries.
Her first contemporary middle-grade novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE was published in 2023 and was longlisted for the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award.
WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT and DANGER ROAD are out now.
A multi-genre writer, journalist, creative writing teacher and speaker, Allison is co-founder of the Your Kid’s Next Read community and co-host of the top-rating Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and former co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast.
She lives on the south coast of NSW (Australia) with her family.
A LITTLE BIT MORE…
Danger Road was published on 1 July 2025 (Scholastic Australia).
Willow Bright’s Secret Plot was published on 1 May 2025 (Scholastic Australia).
For more information about Willow Bright’s Secret Plot plus Teachers’ Notes and other resources, click here.
The First Summer Of Callie McGee was published on 1 August 2023 (Scholastic Australia) and was shortlisted for the 2024 Davitt Awards and longlisted for the 2024 Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award.
For more information about The First Summer of Callie McGee, plus Teachers’ Notes and other resources, click here.
The Fire Star (A Maven & Reeve Mystery) was published in September 2020 (Penguin Books Australia), and was a Notable book in the CBCA Children’s Book Of The Year Awards 2021. It was longlisted for the 2021 Davitt Awards.
The Wolf’s Howl (Maven & Reeve #2) was published in August 2021 in Australia and July 2022 in the USA.
For more information about the Maven & Reeve Mystery novels, plus teachers’ notes and other resources, click here.
Race To The End Of The World, the first book in THE MAPMAKER CHRONICLES series was published in October 2014 and was shortlisted for the Readings Children’s Book Prize 2015 and named a Notable book in the CBCA Children’s Book Of The Year Awards 2015.
In 2016, it was shortlisted for the REAL Awards (Fiction for Older Readers) and, in 2017, it was shortlisted for the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards (Younger Readers).
Book #2, Prisoner of the Black Hawk, was released in April 2015, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Aurealis Awards (Best Children’s Fiction) while book #3, Breath of the Dragon, followed in October 2015, and book #4, Beyond The Edge Of The Map, in March 2017 .
THE MAPMAKER CHRONICLES series is available in Australia, USA, UK, Lithuania and Turkey.
For more information about The Mapmaker Chronicles, plus Teachers’ Notes and other resources, click here.
The Book Of Secrets, book #1 in the Ateban Cipher series, came out in September 2017 in Australia, with book #2, The Book Of Answers, following in March 2018.
The series has been described as “the kind of thrilling adventure that has readers turning the pages as fast as they can devour the story along the way discerning many important themes about trust, loyalty, ingenuity and courage.”
THE ATEBAN CIPHER series is available in Australia and the USA.
For more information about The Ateban Cipher, plus Teachers’ Notes and other resources, click here.
Discover books by A.L. TAIT
BEYOND WRITING
Community
Allison Tait is a co-founder of the Your Kid’s Next Read (YKNR) community, and a passionate advocate for children’s literature in Australia.
YKNR is now a thriving Facebook group of nearly 40,000 members, a podcast, a newsletter and more.
Allison, along with YKNR co-founder and podcast co-host Megan Daley, and Allison Rushby, the third member of Team YKNR, is available for comment and interview, as well as presentations and discussions at events and festivals.
Allison Tait was a board member of the Shoalhaven Readers’ and Writers’ Festival and was the director of the children’s program for 2018 and 2019 festivals, and the COVID-cancelled 2020 event.
In January 2019, Allison was honoured to receive a Shoalhaven City Council Australia Day Award for Outstanding Contribution to Arts and Culture.
Speaking
In recent years, Allison Tait has shared her passion for writing and creativity at numerous events for children and adults, including Sydney Writers’ Festival, Somerset Storyfest, Once Upon A Festival, Writing NSW Kids & YA Festival, Whitsunday Voices, South Coast Readers’ & Writers’ Festival, Singapore Writers’ Festival, Brisbane Writers’ Festival, Sydney Writers’ Festival, among others.
She is an informative and entertaining presenter of author talks in schools.
You will find more details about school visits, workshops and other presentations here.
education
Allison Tait’s weekly podcast, Your Kid’s Next Read, co-hosted with Megan Daley has become an integral part of the Australian children’s publishing landscape.
In 2026, the Your Next Read junior fiction series, developed in partnership between YKNR and Affirm Press, will offer a curated wide reading experience for young Australians.
As former co-host of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast, Allison spoke to hundreds of authors and honed a clear, articulate interview and podcast style.
Her courses for the Australian Writers’ Centre reflect that style, including Make Time To Write and the Creative Writing 30-Day Bootcamp.
Allison’s online creative writing course for children, the Creative Writing Quest For Kids, is always open for bookings! Find out more about it here.
Part fantasy quest, part peril on the high seas, Race to the End of the World is rollicking fun. Not since Emily Rodda’s Deltora Quest series has there been such an exciting adventure tale from an Australian author … perfect for readers aged 8 to 12 who are looking for some escapism in the sea of contemporary stories.”